Extreme Exposure (8 page)

Dipping his head, he cupped her chin in his hand and brushed his lips against hers. Her mouth was warm, salty. She sucked in a little breath and his tongue touched the tip of hers. Raw desire burning through him, he longed to bring her closer, to feel the length of her body against his. But he couldn’t, not now anyway, and he forced himself to pull away.

Her expression was bewildered. “What was that all about?”

He didn’t say anything, just watched those dark eyes, waited for the hammer to fall. But she didn’t look angry, or scared, and she kept eye contact, didn’t back away.

As if she hadn’t minded it at all.

He turned around quickly, held that image before she remembered herself and put that wall back up between them.

“Car.” Grabbing his arm, she dragged him behind a large rhododendron.

Through the leathery leaves of the shrub, he watched the car approach, knowing even before he saw the lights on the roof that it would be the cops. Emily, huddled against the white clapboard siding of the hotel, looked at him, terror in her eyes again.

He squeezed her hand. It was that kind of day. One step forward, two back.

CHAPTER SEVEN

E
mily held her breath as the cruiser whipped past the side of the hotel and skidded to a stop at the front entrance. Seconds later, a car door slammed.

Matt waited two beats before he peeked around the corner. “He’s gone inside. Let’s go.”

The parking lot held about fifty cars, angled into tight slots in three long bays. Light poles every dozen feet lit the lot up like a Christmas tree. She held back a curse. How the heck did he think he’d be able to steal one without getting caught?

With one eye on the hotel’s front entrance, she crept after him up the far side of the parking lot. He stopped at the third bay, crouched down.

A car drove along the road toward the parking lot, the same way the cop car had come. It turned into the first bay, drove on to the second bay. She exchanged glances with Matt, and they crawled around to hide between two cars. After a few seconds, the purring of the engine stopped. Doors opened and the laughing voice of a woman cut through the night air. Sticking her head up, Emily watched a man put his arm around a woman who teetered in high heels, obviously drunk.

When the couple started walking to the hotel entrance, Matt got up, moved along to an old car in the middle of the bay. “Probably an employee car,” he said when she had caught up. “I’d rather steal from the rich, but we wouldn’t be able to hotwire a new one. You keep watch.”

Putting the knapsack on the ground beside him, he took off a shoe. Emily peered over the trunk of the car beside them. Not seeing anything, she glanced at Matt, who had removed a shoelace. He made a loop and threaded it through the door.

She whispered, “Where did you learn this stuff? Or do I want to know?”

“I took a three-day course on escape and evasion. Never did get to use it overseas, but it’s coming in handy right now.”

He shot her a smile. Her stomach did that flip again, and warmth crept up her neck and into her face. He was gorgeous, so much so she couldn’t take her eyes off him. “I’ll have to sign up when this is over.”

Easing the car door open, he fished a multi-tool out of his backpack, got in, and leaned across the seat. A few mumbled curses later, the car rumbled to life. The muffler sounded like somebody had dropped rocks in it. He snatched up his knapsack and motioned for her to get in the passenger side.

As she moved around the car, the cop came out the hotel’s front entrance. Pulse pounding in her throat, she whispered a warning to Matt. Ducking down, they stared at each other, tried to listen for the cop but the car’s muffler was too loud.

He said, “We have to go. We might attract more attention if we’re idling in the parking lot and I don’t want to shut it off. Duck down.”

Heart beating furiously, she slid down in the seat. Matt picked up a ball cap from the backseat and put it on, then backed the car out and drove down the bay. The muffler made it sound like the car had tin cans attached, like a car with a sign bearing “Just Married” attached to it. The cop would stop them for sure.

Heart beating furiously, she said, “Is he watching?”

“Yes.” He exhaled heavily. “I hope we don’t have to make a run for it.”

“Oh, God.” He couldn’t be serious. She felt the car turn left, and left again after ten long seconds. “Anything?”

Watching the rearview mirror, it was a half-minute before he answered. “You can get up now. He’s not following.”

She inched up, buckled her seat belt, waited for her heart to slow before speaking. “I just don’t get it. Why are they going through so much trouble for a canoe?”

Avoiding her eyes, he scratched his head. “That was my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was a nice canoe, looked brand new. It’s made of Kevlar.”

“Kevlar? You picked a bullet-proof canoe? Did you think we were going to be shot at?”

“I had one once. They won’t stop a bullet, but they’re light and fast.” A sheepish look was on his face. “But I think this one belonged to the mayor.”

“What?”

“The mayor has a cottage on the other side of the cove.”

Relief flooded through her. “You should have told me sooner. Here I was, sure the cops were after me.”

“Will I redeem myself if I buy you a burger?”

“Can we risk it?”

“I think so. We’ll get some coffee, too. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

The road led them south, out of town, past a commercial area with gas stations, fast-food restaurants, and motels. He pulled up to a drive-through window at a fast-food restaurant and they ordered burgers, milkshakes, coffee, and water.

Back on the road, she watched a car come toward them, heading north. When it passed, she let out a breath, reached into the bag to open their meal.

The heady aroma of greasy food filled the car, but there was something to sort out first, something even more important than raging hunger. She turned to him. “Where are we going?”

He gave her a sly look, the corners of his mouth curving into a small smile. “Why, Emily, I think you’re finally coming around to me. That’s the first time you’ve used the word ‘we,’ at least in terms of us doing something together.”

Shooting her a teasing smile, he looked seriously sexy, especially with that dark stubble on his chin. Feeling her face go red, she hoped it was too dark for him to see.

“Don’t force your luck.” She gave him a stern look. At least she hoped it was a stern look. It was hard controlling how she looked at him. Or how her body responded. “Let’s put it this way, where are
you
going?”

Rubbing his chin, he considered this for a minute. “How about this for a plan? We follow this road south for about an hour, and then we’ll pick up the highway heading west into New Hampshire. If we drive all night, we should be in New Hampshire by morning. We’ll stop at a motel, get cleaned up, maybe catch a couple hours of sleep. You should be able to get a bus to Riverton from there.”

“And you’ll head south to Boston?” For all her wanting to be clear of him, suddenly the thought of them parting brought a dull ache to her stomach. But she knew it had to happen. She couldn’t let herself think of any other scenario.

He nodded. “I’ll pick up a rental car in New Hampshire.”

“Okay. Sounds like a plan,” she said, that ache in her stomach deepening.

He smiled. “Can we eat now?”

Twenty minutes later, most of the food finished, she said, “I’ll take a turn driving when you get tired.”

“Okay, but you should sleep. You look beat.”

Nodding, she put her head back against the headrest, closed her eyes. Her heart rate was in the normal range, but her mind raced with thoughts of her narrow escape. What would she do once she got to Riverton? Would it be safe to go to her apartment? She’d have to ask the landlord to let her in, since her keys were back at the cabin. But what if going there put other tenants at risk? No, she wouldn’t go back there until this was all over.

Opening her eyes, she sat up straight. It was no use trying to sleep. The milkshake still cold in her hands, she sucked through the straw, finished it. The dim light made the mood in the car feel oddly intimate. Looking at Matt’s large hands on the steering wheel, it wasn’t hard to remember the feel of them on her face when he’d kissed her. Warm, gentle. Maybe some time those hands would touch her in a different way, one that was rougher, when his need was deeper.

What is with you?

To distract herself, she said, “Tell me about the woman you helped hide, the one whose husband was abusive.”

“She was a friend of my sister’s. I didn’t know her that well.” He shifted in his seat. “To hear her tell it, she married this guy and he changed overnight. First, she tried to stick with him—they’d had one of those huge weddings, it had cost her family a lot of money—but pretty soon she realized she couldn’t.”

He paused a few seconds. “She left him, but he kept coming around, begging her to take him back. When that didn’t work, he said he’d kill her. She got a restraining order, but he didn’t care. He spent a weekend in jail, got hold of a phone, and told her he was going to kill her when he got out. She believed him.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “So we—my sister and I—decided to help her. We hid her out for a week while we set things up, got her a new identity. It wasn’t easy, especially since she had a daughter. Anyway, so far, so good. My sister talks to her once in a while. She’s moved on.”

“Is she in contact with her family?”

“A bit and her ex remarried, so maybe she’d be okay. But she doesn’t want to take chances.”

“Why did you help her? It doesn’t sound like an easy thing to do.”

“It would have been easier to just break his neck, or at least put a good scare into him, but that wouldn’t have been smart. In a way, it benefited me, too.”

“What do you mean? Did you have something going on with this woman?”

He scoffed. “No, it’s because of her that I’m doing what I’m doing. She had some money, but nowhere near enough to buy a house, and I realized there was a niche market, especially in cities. My company specializes in small, energy efficient designs for low-income people and retirees, or just people who don’t want to live in a big house. There’s more money to be made building bigger houses, but I get a lot more satisfaction out of this.”

They picked up the highway heading inland, a long gray ribbon winding west across the state through farmland and forest. The traffic was sparse, mostly trucks. No cop cars.

She fell asleep, waking just before four in the morning when Matt stopped for gas at a twenty-four-hour station. While she went to the washroom, he filled the gas tank and bought coffee for her.

Back in the car, she took the wheel.

“We should be in New Hampshire in a couple of hours,” he said. “Pull into the first old motel you see. We’ll stop, get cleaned up, get some new clothes, and rest up before we get back on the road.”

She thought about asking him why it had to be old, but let it go.

A minute later, he was asleep, as if he’d just flicked a switch. She wished she could sleep like that. Just before sunrise she crossed into New Hampshire, although it took another twenty minutes before she spotted an old motel. At least the sign was old, the words Carport Motel painted in faded black letters on a weathered sign.

As she pulled off the road, he woke up, rubbed his face. “Where are we?”

“Half an hour over the border. I found an old motel. And there’s a mall and a car rental place over there.” She pointed across the highway.

The motel was a single-level, U-shaped building with a parking lot in the middle. At the front of one end was a diner with a dozen cars out front. There was no sign of a carport. She parked the car out of sight behind a truck and waited while Matt got a room. When he came back, they left the car where it was and walked to a room in the middle of the U at the back. The small room had thin green carpet, two double beds, and two tub chairs on either side of a small table next to the window. A door in the middle of one wall led to an adjoining room. She checked to ensure it was locked.

Matt passed her an extra-large men’s T-shirt with “New Hampshire” printed on it. “They were selling them in the lobby. It was the only size they had. I got one for you, one for me.”

“It’s great. I’m going to take a shower.” In the shower, she scrubbed herself with a little bar of soap. There was no shampoo, so she used soap on her hair. The T-shirt was long enough to cover her butt, which was all she cared about.

When she came out, Matt smiled. “You could fit five of you in there.”

She smiled. “It’s not exactly what a bride would wear on her wedding night.”

She meant it to be a light remark, but he just stared at her, naked need in his eyes. “You could be wearing the proverbial potato sack. You know that, don’t you?”

Feeling her cheeks warm, she looked away. Men just didn’t look at her like that. Not that she gave them the chance. Usually a hard stare was enough to make them turn away. So why wasn’t she using that stare now?

He went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, the water sounding like rain sluicing over that hard body. She imagined him dipping his head under the showerhead to wash his hair. Those large hands soaping his muscular chest and arms.

Climbing under the covers, she felt the heat of him on her body like a fever. He didn’t even have to say anything. That look was enough.

She squeezed her eyes shut. A couple of more hours, that’s all she had to get through. After that, she’d be on a bus, moving on.

*  *  *

Someone was on the walkway in front of their room. Rolling out of bed, Matt crept to the window, flicked back a corner of the curtain. An elderly couple entered the room next to them.

Letting out a breath, he checked his watch. It was just before noon, which meant he had slept for more than four hours. He snuck a glance at Emily. She was sleeping on her side, curled up with her hands tucked under her head on the pillow. Soft lips lightly touching, she looked totally relaxed. An urge to walk over and stroke that soft skin overwhelmed him.